Deliberate Soccer Practice Modulates Attentional Functioning in Children
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemEditorial
Frontiers Media
Materia
Executive control Orienting Alerting Childhood Team sports
Fecha
2020-05Referencia bibliográfica
Moratal C, Lupiáñez J, Ballester R and Huertas F (2020) Deliberate Soccer Practice Modulates Attentional Functioning in Children. Front. Psychol. 11:761. [doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00761]
Patrocinador
This research was supported by grants from San Vicente Mártir Catholic University of Valencia (2019-158-003 to FH and 2018- 158-004 to CM) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (PSI2017-84926-P) to JL and FH. The funding bodies had no role in the study design, the data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Resumen
The main purpose of this study was to explore the association between the
regular practice of open-skill sports (i.e., soccer) and executive control, along with
other attentional functions (i.e., alerting and orienting) during preadolescence. The
study was conducted on 131 participants (70 non-athletes and 61 soccer players).
To measure cognitive performance, participants performed the Attentional Network
Test—Interactions (ANT-I) task. Compared to non-athletes, soccer players showed
overall faster responses and better executive control (e.g., reduced interference from
distractors). Overall, our results provide new empirical evidence supporting the positive
association between regular sports practice and cognitive performance, and more
specifically executive functions. However, is important to note that the relationship
between regular sport practice and cognition is complex and multifactorial. Our findings
can be partly explained by the “cardiovascular fitness hypothesis” and the “cognitive
component skills approach,” suggesting that an externally paced sport environment
with high physical fitness and perceptual–cognitive demands may be an appropriate
setting to optimize the development of cognitive functioning during early adolescence.